SUTTON & WAWNE MUSEUM

SOME OTHER USEFUL LINKS

MOST OF THESE LINKS ARE GENERALLY FREE TO VISIT,
to view the specific site.
I will indicate any link that makes a charge to view information,
though most of them on here are FREE.

Link Requesters from other countries should carefully note:
WE NOW ONLY POST NEW LINKS RELATING TO BRITISH HISTORY

So Commercial Companies Should Note This ;
we do not take or accept commercial advertising.
In particular, we have no interest in advertising or linking to:
Insurance
or
Financial Operations,
nor
Legal
or
Medical
services,
Welfare advice
lines for
Families,
Children,
Animals
of any sort,
Plants
or
any other Organisms
such as
Protest Groups,
political or otherwise,
or advertising of any Products, for home, business or garden.
If a website is recommended, it's because I or my friends here at the museum
found it useful for history, and we actually like it.
We're not on any 'screw', 'take' or kickback here.
For those not familiar or aware with those terms,
they are British colloquial speak for 'bribes'.
Nor do we give in to relentless pressure. The answer is still No.
Politely of course -- we are British!

They should also note that we are all volunteers
at this museum; none are paid for their time.
Indeed, it's the other way round,
for the most part, we pay to work here.
That's another odd British thing too - doing summat for now't. Wierd.
It is sad to have to waste space to post this notice
but folks would be amazed at the diverse types of outfits that
want us to put their advertising links here. I was a fool to have
added any medical ones, like to asbestosis, in the first place;
they just act as a pull magnet to all the others.

Most of these links are to other sites,
and will open in a new browser window.
This Sutton & Wawne page
will stay open behind whilst you browse,
just close each new browser window
when you've done with it.

At risk of viewers thinking we may be trying to guide them away
from our own site, we post even more History Links on yet another page
to other sites of more general, but even deeper historical interest.
Some have connections to the East Riding, and some to the wider UK,
and the first ones are to FREE eBooks. I know it sounds improbable,
but they are genuinely free to use. Just watch for futher links to not-so-free
products or services. Be careful where you 'click, tap, or point'.

And do 'Bookmark' us so that you can come back and find us again.

TIPS ON BROKEN OR
OBSOLETE LINKS
SCREENSHOTS SAVES THE DAY!

With the internet as we know it being now some 30 years old, it
stands to reason that many original links and website addresses
will have changed over the years, or even no longer exist.
I'm sure you've sometimes clicked a link and nothing
happens, or an annoying page of adverts you didn't want
pops up. It's the same with me, it happens occasionally
when I check this links page that some no longer work.
Sometimes, the address has changed ever so slightly, but often
it's disappeared entirely. If there is a page you used to
visit, that no longer exists, and desperately need to see
again, all may not be lost. It may be a page you wrote, on a
site that went down, and you want to recover the text. There is an excellent
archive site, that continuously trawls the web and archives pages at regular
intervals, say every couple of months or so.

Commonly known as the
SCREENSHOTS
.. it is now a recommended replacement to the WAY BACK MACHINE which I
recommended before. That was good, but it has fell by the wayside in that it
is no longer updated. I spotted a link to SCREENSHOTS online, and here it is.
Like the WBM, it does
indeed go way back, and can often retrieve pages we may have
thought long lost. It's very good for web historians to
track how a particular site has evolved over the years. If you
ever had a site of your own, for more than a few months, and
the server went down and you lost all your info without any
backup, you may well find it is still mostly there. If you have
a broken link still saved in your Favorites, then you already
have the address or URL. Just copy the link, and paste it into
the search box at SCREENSHOTS ... the older aerial views of Hull
and East Riding towns shown further below is a good example.
The pages are all still there, including most of the
photographs, as they were when last archived in 2007, but
they're just not on the original URL of . . .
http://tlfe.org.uk/air/. Paste that address into the
SCREENSHOTS and
hey presto ... all is not lost. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention,
it is free, just as WBM was. Yes, free to all comers. Once
again, what a resource! And thanks to those who devised and maintain it now.
The servers and hard drives must be phenomenal in size.

LINKS TO CHARITIES SUCH AS
THE BRITISH LEGION and BRITISH ARMED FORCES
voluntary organisations are kept; because they represent the men
and women who fought for our freedoms, and the many who
paid for those freedoms with their lives, in order
for us to have any history worth celebrating.

THE LEONARD CHESHIRE FOUNDATION
is one of the most worthwhile organisations ever set up, and also one of the
most
widely known. For those not aware,
Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, VC, OM, DSO & Two Bars, DFC
,
was one such man, who fought for our freedoms, and set up this
humanitarian organisation which, along with the one set up by his
second wife, Sue Ryder, sort of kick-started today's hospice movement
for people with terminal illnesses.

And, LEST WE FORGET - Over the years, we have all known
many ex-servicemen and women who gave of their best years to
serve in the forces, whether as volunteers or by conscription. We
young'uns who came along in the 1950s have probably enjoyed
the very best that Britain has ever been able to offer, thanks to
the peace and security those hundreds of thousands of men and
women gave us.

This is one way we can help,
to say thanks to those who came home,
and Give Thanks for the lives
of those who didn't.
Did you know that you don't have to have been
in the Forces to join the Royal British Legion?

And for Family Historians, here is another potentially very useful link -
indispensable some would say. Go straight to the
COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION
We hope it helps -
- it truly is an olympic site and archive of hundreds of thousands
of names;
and that includes BOTH World Wars;
ALL 4 services including the Merchant Marine, and Civilians killed
in the UK,
and ALL countries of the Empire and Commonwealth.
Even if your relative was lost at sea, he or she will be honoured
on this database.

RANDOM ACTS OF GENEALOGICAL KINDNESS . . .
I must take an early space to promote this organisation. They are a
worthy cause, and need volunteers. So perhaps if someone has
helped you along the road with your genealogy, maybe you could
return the favour once you are up and running and help someone
else out. They are worldwide, and need people everywhere, so if
you're a kind person inclined to do someone else a good turn
with their research and help them out, please do give them a
visit and sign up. This was the site, back in 2003, that helped
me to contact Bronwen Hughes in Sydney, Australia, when I was
originally looking to find the family of the
fighter pilot
in our graveyard. Not only did
Bronwen help, she turned out to be a relative of that pilot!
Another internet family history success story. Thank you, Bronwen.

Reading
This Page
will inform anyone about our policy regarding adding links, what type of links
we are interested in,
and most firmly what type of link we have no interest in.
Reading it will save them, and us, an enormous amount of time.
We do British history, nothing else.

SUTTON WAR MEMORIAL ROLL OF HONOUR
- a list of all the names on all the plaques, from both World
Wars. Also now included are the men of St Marks and The Groves,
Stoneferry and Wilmington. All names should also be able to be
checked out at the CWCG site above. Additionally, as of Jan 2014, we now have
a searchable database in the museum of all the WW1 dead of Sutton. Over the
next 4 years, we will complete it for the former parishes of Stoneferry,
Wilmington, and The Groves, which historically were all part of the wider
Sutton parish, until around 1887. Folks may be surprised to know that Sutton
parish extended right down to the north side of Witham.

THE HISTORY PIN
. . .
another site sent to me by a friend. This is a global
community collaborating around history. Where you can submit
and upload historic photos of your family and tell a little of
their story. Prince William of Wales has uploaded a photo of
himself and his grandmother, HM The Queen. At the time of
posting this link, it boasts of over 316,000 materials and
memories, sent by over 52,000 users, and growing daily. Lots
of historic interest up there, so worth a good browse.

I've tried to add our little museum and family history centre to Historypin and
the maps ... not sure how it all works yet, but sure our Church Street number
is not 19, but it was the closest the map would allow us to get. You can see
what we post up to the map here .. hopefully, we'll post some historic images
soon, a small selection of what we have for viewing inside the museum on
Fridays.

Back to the Sutton & Wawne Museum Page

MILITARY ARCHIVES AND THE TWO WORLD WARS
There's a group of links near the
bottom of this page
specifically to Military
Archives dealing with records from both World Wars. Some sites just
list the details of archives that are available if you write or
visit, mostly in London, and others are sites where some
information is available on line.

THE HEDON MUSEUM
... Situated a little hidden away at the back of the Town Hall and shops in St
Augustine's Gate, this growing museum has artefacts from all eras of the former
seaport's history. They have rotating exhibitions throughout the year, covering
a wide aspect of historical and artistic subject matter as well as an excellent
and growing
FaceBook page
. They open Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10am-4pm, during the summer months
through to autumn. Parking is on a nearby free car park, accessed via Iveson
Close, but do get there early - Wednesday is also market day!

SWANLAND HERITAGE CENTRE
... a relatively new (2013) but excellent heritage facility in the ancient
village of Swanland. Located in the former library (that used to be the Sir
James Reckitt Institute for the village), they have a display of old photos,
maps and plans detailing the history of the village and the wider surrounding
areas. The photo collection is growing quickly now as more are donated. For
folks with heritage or old family from the area, to new settlers to the
village, the display offers a fascinating peek into past decades. Manned with
volunteers, as with us at The Old School, they are totally dependant on
visitors. If you, or anyone you know, has 'west of Hull' rural connections,
taking in that wider area from Ferriby down on the river over to Kirkella,
Anlaby and Willerby, they'll want to see this display. Of course, anyone
reading this who actually lives in the area and has a penchant for history,
it's almost a given that you would want to get involved .. .. wouldn't you?
They also have an excellent and growing
FaceBook page
, also accessed from the link above.

THE MUSEUM of ENGLISH RURAL LIFE
- was founded by the University of Reading
in 1951 to reflect and record the changing face of farming and
the countryside, and this page is within the university's
own website. It houses designated collections of national
importance that span the full range of objects, archives,
photographs, film and books. Today, it forms part of the
University's Museums and Collections Service. One of
it's most recent and important displays is that on the
"Agricultural Glass Negatives Preservation Project",
a year long project to preserve its unique collection of
130,000 glass plate negatives created by the Farmer and
Stockbreeder and the Farmers Weekly magazines. The glass
negatives contain all aspects of farming life and show just
how much farming has changed during the last century. If your
family tree is of 'farming stock', and your census
research is full of 'Ag Labs' - then this site will
give a flavour of life in rural England. Just one aspect of a
fascinating website, and one can only imagine that the museum
itself must be well worth a visit.

HISTORY OF HULL
is provided by HULLWEBS, who are the sponsors of our own Sutton
website name, and for that we owe them our thanks. This really is
a terrific site charting the history of Hull through the
centuries. Many, many pages, and links, and specifically, a large
section on the two world wars. There is a superb chart showing
the locations, times, weights of bombs, hours under alert and
casualties, during the Hull Blitz. Should be an award winner, and
I'm proud to give it a prominent link here. They also invite
YOU to add your story to Hull's story - you and your family
are part of it, so why not. Give it a go. The more I learn about
this city, the more convinced I am that it has a great story to
tell. Be proud of it. Celebrate it. And don't forget to
commemorate and remember those whose lives and experience IS the
story and couldn't live to see it told this way.

HEROES OF HULL
Additionally, there is also a more local site, commemorating the
War Dead of this area generally, for Hull and the East Riding. It
also opens in a new window.

KINGSTON UPON HULL WAR MEMORIAL 1914 - 1918
A brilliantly executed website, both a memorial and research site, dedicated to
the 7,500 or so men from Hull who lost their lives in WW1. Searches can be by
name, regiment and service, and most incredibly, even by street. Every Hull
street that lost a resident is listed, and going down the list of streets and
seeing the totals for each is sobering enough in itself. The amount of
information to be found on individual casualties belies the amount of research
and hard work in compiling the associated databases, let alone the skill and
artistic accomplishment in bringing it to the web. Thanks Paul, this has all
the hallmarks of a labour of love, and I noted the dedications at the bottom of
the page. I imagine, many Hull families will have conveyed their thanks to you
already, and many more will do so in the fullness of time.

HULL PEOPLE'S MEMORIAL
Another remarkable site, linked strongly to HEROES of HULL above,
raising funds for a city centre memorial to Hull's 1,200 civilian war dead,
planned to be on the Prudential Corner site. The shop in Whitefriargate is a
little treasure trove of information and artefacts of both world wars, but with
special emphasis on Hull's long-neglected blitz in 1940-43. A story that has
long needed telling, to our visitors and the wider nation in general, they tell
and show it very well indeed, and all credit to all those involved. When it
comes to family history associated with Hull's blitz, researching wardens,
emergency workers, records of addresses and bomb damage, they are a very good
first place to start, with more information coming in all the time.

THE YORKSHIRE REGIMENT
. . . the successor to both the East and West Yorkshires, the
Green Howards, and the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. Their website takes you
to their regimental museum pages, with a comprehensive regimental history of
not just both world wars, but many other conflicts too. There are a surprising
number of records you can access online, though some WW2 records pertaining to
men enlisted and discharged are not yet available online. Most WW1 records
are.

HULL & EAST RIDING AT WAR
This site seems to have gone down ... unavailable. For how long, who knows. If anyone knows where they've gone ... ?

HULL BLITZ MAPS
- maps
plotting the fall of bombs - this links to a new window and a
set of 16 scans of a large streetmap of Hull, dated 1945, onto
which has been entered details of the fall of HE bombs and mines
for the period 1940-44. The many more thousands of incendiary
bombs cannot be shown, there simply were far to many to count.
Each section loads separately in a new window, and was roughly A4 in size.

NEW HULL BLITZ MAP
- is a new INTERACTIVE HULL BOMBMAP for 2011
Sadly, for some reason, this no longer works. Runs on MS-Silverlight, which is an Add-On similar to Adobe Flash, but is no longer updated, so browsers won't load it. Shame, because it was very good. So it seems, it's back to the old one above I'm afraid, basic though it is. There's no clue on the site as to who owns or runs it, so I can't even get in touch with them.

RAF SUTTON ON HULL
There is now this excellent Website devoted entirely to RAF
Sutton, and the Balloon and Firefighting Squadrons stationed
there over the years. It contains photos, station plan and a full
history, indeed, the contents of the book by the late Leonard
Bacon. With a foreword by Merrill Rhodes, it is as she says, an
excellent read, full of humour and pathos as well as history.
Having seen this new site for myself, I am in awe at the layout
and clarity, and must congratulate the people at HullWebs above,
who have hosted Len's pages in such a magnificent way. A fine
memorial to both RAF Sutton and Len himself. To say it comes
Highly Recommended is only the half of it. Enjoy!

EYFHS : EAST YORKSHIRE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY
- This excellent society have an extensive archive of Census data, Monumental
Inscriptions, and a full programme of events, displays, talks, etc, for the
year. Their magazine is "The Banyan Tree", and they have a well-stocked shop of
books, lists and maps that can be ordered online. They meet once a month and
have 4 meeting venues around the county, in Beverley, Bridlington, Hull and
Scarborough, all with full details and map directions on their website. A
thriving society that can give you lots of assistance, also with email Help
Desks; you're guaranteed to make many new friends too.

SUTTON'S HISTORIC & LISTED BUILDINGS
- A Fascinating Link to a Hull City Council site that lists much of interest within Sutton village; the old houses, ancient trees, monuments, etc (opens like PDF). Includes references to this Old School and the Reading Rooms.

EYLHS : EAST YORKSHIRE LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY
- Focussed on local history in a more general sense, EYLHS are a long
established society with as wide a range of history interest as could be wished
for. If it's in East Yorkshire and in the past, they're on it. They have a wide
range of publications, both their own publications and others, as well as many
site visits a year. Their photo gallery is well worth a browse for a variety of
views from all over the county.

SUTTON LEISURE & SPORTS
Facebook Page to The former Reading Rooms, dating from 1877, just along Church
Street, about 300m from the Old School. I must recommend you
visit this site. Especially for youngsters interested in sports,
and even more especially snooker. There's 5 full-sized
snooker tables, and 2 for pool. The FB page is superb, the whole
place is now effectively a Community Centre, taking on a new
lease of life in the past couple of years, and now can offer
conference, youth, sport and training facilities on site. An
incredible team of volunteers, these are folks that make things
happen.
SUTTON CIVIC SOCIETY also meet within the Reading Rooms, every
3rd Wednesday, bi-monthly.

SUTTON in HOLDERNESS CONSERVATION SOCIETY
This local group does not have their own website as yet, so this
page is just for basic information and local contacts.
The Society are long-time supporters of The Old School and our humble museum
within. Another contact is Marlene, at the Reading Rooms listed above.

EAST HULL HARRIERS
This venerable and ancient running and athletics club meet at their clubhouse
on Saltshouse Road, Hull, HU8 9HF, on Tuesday evenings about 6.45pm. The Club
was formed in 1893 under the name of Holderness Road Presbyterian Harriers,
with their Headquarters then in the Schoolroom at the Church. Although most of
that Church was pulled down in 1972, the Schoolroom still remains, today its
part of the Green Man Public House on Holderness Road. Details for how to
become a member are on their website.

SUTTON ON HULL STATION
- info on Sutton station, and a very informative site generally
on disused railway stations, by Mark Dyson. Gives a good potted
history with dates, maps, and links to nearby stations on the
same Hull to Hornsea line, and with some nice b&w photos.
Intended for Railway Enthusiasts, but also of much interest to
family historians if you want to see something of the atmosphere
of where your forebears lived and travelled.

SUTTON ON HULL CRICKET CLUB
- founded in 1872 and still going strong. A very comprehensive
and informative website, where their motto is "East
Hull's Friendliest Cricket Club", their ground is at
Netherhall, entrance off Midmere Avenue. There are pages for
Senior and Junior cricket, a full history of the club, notable
players and records and statistics. All in all, an excellent
site.

THE COURTYARD - for Plants, Flowers & Ornaments ... no
external web link to this excellent little business yet, but
there will be. Small local plant shops need all the help they can
get, and this one is a real delight, situated in a little
courtyard in College St, just around the corner from the church.
A vast amount of floral stock, in such a tiny space. Call Jan
Lockyer on 07932 944 437 for details of what's on stock
now.

FLASHBACK - issue 187 -- March2009
- from The Hull Daily Mail - a local paper
of nostalgia, with many articles and photos looking back at to
Hull of yesteryear. It frequently carries articles dealing
with the trawling and transport industries, and many local
news photographs of years ago.

THE CIVILIAN WAR DEAD INDEX
of Yorkshire, Northumberland & Durham
was started by an ex-Hessle Road man, from his home in Canada,
along with a friend who is from the north-east, hence the
appearance of those other counties too. There are an amazing
number of Hull names on that list, strikingly so. For people NOT
from Hull, who ever doubted how bad Hull was hit during WWII,
then take a look at this. Additionally, there is also a list
where the "Casualties Ordered by Date of Fatal
Incident". So you can search and see all those folks killed
the same day, in the same raids, or even by street. Just do a
page search for your street to see if anyone was killed there. As
an example, type "Mulgrave" into the search box. This
link is repeated on the Church Links page also. It seemed it
appropriate to mention it here also.

There is a published extract of just Hull casualties, the
1200 or so of Hull's War Dead. It is available from the
East Riding Family History Society
, and the
HDM
also published the full list as a tribute in their commemorative edition on May 7th.

WAR RECORDS of DAMAGED HULL HOUSES
- a fantastic new resource made available
at THE HISTORY CENTRE. They're not online, but available
in the search rooms at The History Centre itself. They contain
records of all the houses totally destroyed, damage to houses
and what repairs were carried out, even damage to
council-owned property like First Aid Posts and Police Boxes.
Their casualty lists not only the dead, but those hospitalised
and those with minor injuries attended to at First Aid Posts.
It will grow and grow.

HULL AIR RAID WARDEN & FIRE WARDEN RECORDS
- also at the HULL HISTORY CENTRE - another great new resource following a project
that has taken volunteers three and a half years to complete. As with the
photo archive above, these lists are not online; you need to go into the
History Centre to access them, and remember to take your Reader's Ticket for
access to the search room. But this link gives a good idea as to what may be
found, and not just ARP records. The helpful receptionists at the desk can
enter your relative's name into their computer to tell you if the name you seek
is to be found. The wartime record cards will often be related to the company
or premises of where the man worked, so you may find out something there that
you never knew as well.

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
an updated link - 1940 added to the address. This site used to
have a link to a page listing the details of Flight Lieutenant
Paterson Clarence Hughes DFC, of 234 Squadron, who came from
Cooma in New South Wales in Australia, and is buried in St
James' churchyard, Sutton. If you explore the site,
you'll also find links to several Hull and East Riding men
who served and lost their lives in that battle. There's also
more information about this pilot on our War Memorial
page.

NORTH-EAST DIARY 1939 -1945
- by the late Roy Ripley & Brian Pears
- another stupendous site that also documents much of the
heartache that the North-East underwent during those dark
years. RAF casualties and crash landings at numerous
airfields, ships built on the Tyne, all sorts of incidents,
some of which tie in with the civilian casualties in the list
above, make this an incredible archive for those interested in
the Home Front of WW2 and family historians alike. Many
references to Hull and the East Riding area. Enough to keep
you busy all evening.

HOME SWEET HOME FRONT
- a
comprehensive site documenting life on the Home Front during
WW2. Contains a good page on the Women's Land Army,
telling how a force of 80,000 women by 1944 were working the
land, literally, farming, forestry, every aspect of
agriculture. Also contains pages on the WVS, Women's
Voluntary Service, and Home Guard, LDV.

FORGOTTEN HEROES
- a
remarkable website detailing the work of those who had to stay
behind. Not everyone could go into the forces - age, or
health, could be a factor, or even being in an already
"reserved occupation", like mining. Some lads would
loved to have joined up and had the chance to go overseas,
with all its risks, but instead found themselves as Bevin Boys
- sent down t'pit. Being over 40, and perhaps not classed
as A1 fit didn't mean they couldn't "serve"
- there was always firewatching. And many died doing it. Plus
Ambulance Drivers, Firefighters and Firewatchers, Observer
Corps, and any number of women's organisations. They all
deserve our thanks too.

It's a fact that if some young folk were to go into most old
folk's homes, residential homes, today, and spoke to the
residents about their trades and jobs in that decade of war
years, they would find nearly all were ex-servicemen and women,
factory girls making parachutes or uniforms or shells or parts
for tanks and lorries, miners, firewatchers (some had to do both
!), and many more besides. Very few people, by 1943, got away
with doing nothing to help the war effort. And those that did
were ostracised by their communities and families. It was easier
to do one's bit than skive off.

SUTTON TRADE NAMES IN 1892
- is a direct link to the GENUKI page that
lists all the tradespeople and farmers living in Sutton in
1892 - in Bulmer's famous Gazetteer. A fascinating
list.

HISTORY OF ALL HULL CHURCHES 1892
. . . again takes us to BULMER'S
GAZETTEER, a mine of information for those seeking a brief
history of all churches in the Hull area, as of around the
turn of the century, 1900. The link takes you to
Part 9 : Churches & Chapels
and lists churches long since
demolished and those destroyed by war, including details of St
Mark's in the Groves, St Saviour's and St Peter's,
Drypool, all areas of which were in the original St James'
parish back in antiquity. Yes, Drypool was in Sutton parish
until Stuart times, just before the Restoration of Charles
I.

FAMILY HISTORY &AMP; GENEALOGY, YORKSHIRE
, particularly for those researching
Yorkshire families, there is a phenomenal amount of
information on this Yorkshire page of the
GENUKI WEBSITE
; (it means
GENealogyUK&Ireland). The page specific to Sutton is:
SUTTON at GENUKI
. There's so much
it's just mind-blowing, and this web thing has only just
got started! You can use this site also as a springboard back
to any UK county you want; just follow the links. Another site
to keep you up all night ! Your "Other Half" will
not thank me for putting you on to all this.

WAWNE - a Photo Site
- several pages of old photos going back decades, with
contributions by villagers; includes a set on Wawne Ferry, as
well as some more modern ones in colour.

CHURCHES - UK & IRELAND
- a lovely site, covering just about all
counties as far as I could tell, and on which there's a
lovely picture of St Peter's in Wawne. They aim to cover
as many churches as they can, but when we remember there are
already over 9,000 churches covered on this site, each with a
photograph, and an estimated 40,000 or so churches in the
whole of the UK, it is a massive task. One area in which
Sutton residents may help is to identify the many 'unknown
churches' from old photographs and paintings. An
intriguing collection, and I know some of you will have the
answers - do visit this very worthwhile site.

A YORKSHIRE SURNAMES LIST
- Established 18th February 2002 by Magdalena Gorrell
Guimaraens, this is a huge list of some 24,000 names already
being researched. Formerly hosted on Geocities, but now here
on GENUKI. You can email them to add your name - it is
worth remembering here that, within the GENUKI webpages above,
most counties have someone who co-ordinates a "Surnames
List" - some county lists are huge, others not so big.
Most invite you to submit the name of the person you are
looking for, the town/village, and approximate date, and your
email/postal address - eg. Brown - Hessle - 1840's-1900 -
user@server.co.uk. It's worth a try if you've searched
and searched and drawn stumps.

UK PARISH LOCATOR
... this truly is a stunning little UK-wide programme, and I do wish I'd
discovered it before. BACK ONLINE, though we still have it if you call in
to get a copy is from us at the museum. Bring a stick and ask for
it, and we'll copy it onto your stick for you and show you how it works. It's
especially useful for finding parishes, and their proximity to each other, in
counties other than your own. We mostly know our own counties well, and Hull
and ER folk wouldn't need a locator to find even lesser known parishes around
our own. But what happens when you find relatives in Cornwall, Herefordshire
or Durham, or you're not even from Britain and have never been here.
Unless you happen to know other counties very well too, you'll spend hours
seeing unfamiliar parish names in lists before some of them will start to make sense
and you realise that seemingly unrelated place names are but a mile or two apart,
and often the next village just up the lane.
This programme is free (it is Freeware, no subs req, doesn't come with popups
or bugs ) is superb, gives a list of parishes within a set distance of the one
you've found, calculates distances, tells you which compass direction, plus a
map reference that can load a Streetmap showing where it is. Very useful for
anyone abroad with UK links but haven't the faintest idea of where's where
without actually coming here. And a must if you are actually planning to visit
a lot of parishes. A brilliant time-saver for visitors. Enjoy.

ANCESTRY IRELAND
- the
Ulster Historical Foundation, a huge genealogical resource, is
a long-established, highly reputable research and publishing
agency. It offers extensive knowledge on the sources available
for tracing Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors.

PICTURES OF ENGLAND
- a
superb site of hundreds if not thousands of photos covering
all counties and most towns in England. Even if you're
familiar with a particular town or area, you'll still see
views that will surprise you. And for those of you who would
like to visit England but can't, and wonder what your
family heritage town or village looked like - enjoy!

**NEW**
BRITISH LISTED BUILDINGS ONLINE
- a private database website, being an online database of buildings and
structures that are listed as being of special architectural and historic
interest. As well as reading the official listing data for each building, you
can also view the location on a map, and, where possible, see it in Google
Streetview and Bing Birds Eye View. You can also add your own comments,
information and photos and view comments and photos submitted by other users of
the site. You can browse for listed buildings by country, county and parish or
locality. A wonderful online resource, and should be better known and
supported.

GEOGRAPH ORG UK
- This
has grown remarkably in the past couple of years, a site
similar to the one above, but run by the Ordnance Survey - a
brilliant resource of photos of just about every map grid
square in the country! Dozens of photos of all towns - lots of
both Hull and East Yorkshire - there's even some of
Sutton! There are hundreds and hundreds of modern quality
photos of Hull alone, with stupendous collections by names
such as Peter Church, Andy Beecroft and David Wright. And
that's not to decry the many other contributors that I
haven't named. This is the one we've been waiting for
- it's still free AND there's no
advertising.

GRAVESTONE PHOTOGRAPH RESOURCE
- a fantastic idea, a free resource that
is voluntary funded. Run from their home site in Suffolk, the
first few dozen graveyards to be indexed are in Norfolk &
Suffolk. But the intention is to go Nationwide - dependent
upon volunteers with digital cameras and the time and
motivation to photograph the headstones in their county's
graveyards. Can you help ? It's worth a look. And if you
do order a picture, remember the time and petrol you've
saved by not having to go yourself, send them a few bob.

OULTWOOD
- is a Local
Government Web Site Index. And not just for the whole of the
UK either. Most of Europe, North America and Australasia seem
to be covered - EVERY council and local authority, right down
to the council tax rates and council minutes ! The point is,
within each council area's own website are lots of other
links useful to Family Historians - links to local history
projects, family history societies, addresses and phone
numbers of Records Offices, and a host more. A very useful
first-step resource that should be better known, and saves the
likes of us hours of searching in Search Engines. Click your
county, then your local authority, and in seconds you're
looking at resources and further links that you might not be
able to get to without having to take a week's
holiday.

These three weblinks below are to the famous
Family History Research site, Ancestry.com.
Please be clear, subscriptions to Ancestry.com are NOT FREE,
as with most other links on these pages.
It is charged for, by credit card only, and neither is it cheap.
I pay about £107 per year for my subscription, which is a 'middle rate';
it's not the cheapest, but neither is it the dearest,
which gives overseas shipping and emigration lists I have no need for.

I would ALWAYS recommend that genuine family historians should gain as much
info as they can from free resources, like FreeBMD, YorkshireBMD, even the IGI
run by the Mormon Church. Once you have found as much as you can, and then
want to take it further, then a paid subscription may be the next course.
Ancestry.com have asked for these links to be included, and I concede because
they are Family History, and I use them myself, and like it. I do not use any
other subscription site, so I'm in no position to advise or recommend on
others. Those that want to use FindMyPast will have to source that for
themselves. So I add these links with strong caveats; These links below
will offer a little info for free
, but not much. Be clear, they are designed to lead you in to offer you a
paid-for subscription.

If you do decide to go for Ancestry.com, please be aware it is an American
site, and as is the case with most things re American business, money is key,
everything. Americans invented the expression, "There's no such thing as a free
lunch." Just remember that, and you won't go far wrong. Know what you are
dealing with. I'm still in too minds as to whether I should have included
these or not. It's not as if they need advertising here, with all their TV
coverage. But if they help you, then good. Be aware that even sending for
birth, marriage and death certificates in the UK
should not cost you more than £12
... yes, some sites will do it for you, for about £24 or more. There are a lot
of charlatans out there. Profits are there to be made, and the gullible will
always pay much more than they need to.

There's also a small amount of space here
for more Sutton links ;
suggest some, Scouts, Guides, perhaps,
local societies, clubs, etc.
In the meantime, here's a mixed bag of a few
more local links in and around Hull,
that may be of interest to a few of you.

Here's a superb site on the
NORTH YORKSHIRE MOORS
-
run by a hill walker who took his digital camera everywhere.
Dozens and dozens of superb photos - no bull. True, it's
not been updated since about 2006, and don't be put off by
the 'blank' photo places on the Home Page .. click the
Archives link for a real surprise.
ARCHIVES
Recommended. Ex-pats will be booking a flight home after
seeing these. Quantas, where's my commission !?

VIRTUAL TOURIST
- is a
portal for private people to upload their own photos of places
around Britain for all to see. One member, who works in Hull
and calling himself "Britannia2" - shows good
quality photographs of Hull and towns in and around the wider
Yorkshire area, as well as the East Riding. He has a specially
good section on Scarborough.

THE VILLAGE PANTRY
further along Church St, past The Duke, for a superb little teashop that also
does hearty breakfasts, and catering for all small occasions. Our museum had a
'gathering' in there for all our volunteer staff, seated 21 for a slap up tea,
and it was superb. Recommended. They're on
FaceBook too
... see their visitors ..

GARDEN VILLAGE, HULL
-
links to a full history, with many old images and modern
photos of the legendary Reckitt's Garden Village in East
Hull. Shelagh and Walter's site tells the whole story from
the original concept of a village for his workers by Sir James
Reckitt, through to the post-war years of the Bradford Trust
and modern times. A superb site, with more history than you
could ever have thought existed.

THE GARDEN VILLAGE SOCIETY
on a beautifully designed website by the
pupils at Malet Lambert School for the village's centenary
in 2008. Well worth a look, more history and photos on the
village and the Reckitt family, all fascinating information,
along with up-to-date info on current events, etc.
Additionally, the former Police Boys Club is now
'The Clubhouse Community Centre'
, a
Grade II listed building, and hosts several clubs who meet or
have activities within, including a choir and historical
society. The former boxing ring has given way to several table
tennis tables, but many of the former activities are still
there, eg martial arts, etc. The clubhouse really has been
transformed and is well worth considering as a small venue for
meetings, family receptions, etc. For more details re the
Clubhouse and activities within, call Rachel Abram on 01482
708104.

BRANSHOLME

ON THE WEB - still not on at all, gone offline!

BROOKLANDS PHOTOGRAPHIC CLUB
-
(formerly Reckitt's)
- have
their meetings on Wednesday evenings at 7-30pm in the
Methodist Church Hall
in Sutton. The club was re-founded in
April 2005, current membership totals about 40. New Members
most welcome onto the waiting list. A few preliminary photos
of local Hull & East Riding scenes now in their Galleries
1&3.

DOVE HOUSE HOSPICE
- a
truly wonderful place. They're always on the lookout for
good volunteers - drivers, admin staff, flower arrangers. Yes,
even flower arrangers. Whenever I've been in, the place is
always full of flowers. Someone has to arrange them all. Visit
their site and see what's what.

HULL ROYAL INFIRMARY
- aka HRI - AND -
CASTLE HILL HOSPITAL
- a
couple of First Class links to our famous hospitals - the HRI
link also links in to Sutton's own adopted hospital, the
Princess Royal just along Salthouse Road. So many local people
have either been deeply involved in raising monies for various
appeals over the years, or had their very lives saved and made
worth living, that any page worth its salt has to praise its
local medics and nurses. Not to be missed.

THE INSTITUTE of ADVANCED MOTORISTS
to gain
A SKILL FOR LIFE
- So you think you know all about driving? It's no
accident
that I've posted this link here, straight
after the one to the Royal Infirmary. Being an Advanced Motorist
is about staying alive - arriving safely - increasing your
awareness and doing everything in your power to keep your family
safe, and staying away from A&E and the Infirmary. But of
course, you know this. But what about
your
offspring, and grandchildren.
What's
their
driving like? Do they
worry you? Maybe one or two of you may be curious enough to
explore this link and take the first steps to perhaps save a life
- starting with your own younger family members, perhaps even
your own life. Passing the qualification also lowers their
insurance, gets cheaper breakdown cover and other benefits. If
this is something you've already been thinking about,
there's never been a better time -
Oh, and yes, they do motorcycling courses and qualifications too.
Priceless.

HULL TRAWLER.NET
All you could ever wish to know; at last a fine and worthy
website to Hull's lost trawler industry. There have been
others in the past, but sadly were not able to keep going. We
wish this one the very best of luck and hope this site address is
here for good. There is a page to the ARCTIC CORSAIR, it's
just that this link takes you to the Home Page, and from there a
myriad of information on many decades of history and countless
numbers of ships. If you want to go quickly just to the ARCTIC
CORSAIR, click
HERE.
Enjoy! You'll be there quite a while.

QUAYSIDES
- a photo
gallery of a lot more ships, most with local Humber
connections or interest. Links to ABP, daily sailings and
sighting reports of vessels seen on the Humber, etc.
Interestingly also includes links and photos to Hull's
adopted warships, GALATEA and IRON DUKE. Also links to the
World Ship Society.

RAF HOLMPTON
- the
top-secret underground Cold War Bunker, open to the public
since 2007, with guided tours. A fascinating look at a
hitherto unsuspected fact of life on the East Yorkshire coast
just south of Withernsea. It houses the only surviving Radar
Projection Table in the UK. This is one of the Command Centres
that would have run the British nuclear reaction had the
'four-minute warning' been sounded. Though what use
four minutes would have done for most of us, I am at a loss to
imagine. However, a very Informative website.

EVERYTHING FIRE FIGHTERS
- from 911 Fire Fighters to World Trade Center Firemen.
Countless links here celebrating the skills and bravery of
Firefighters the world over. This link appears here due to
their interest in RAF Sutton as a pioneer of military aviation
firefighting. We're proud to show them
here.

THE HUMBER BRIDGE
-
fascinating facts and figures, some photos; a well designed
and interesting site by K Taylor; some history of the Humber
Crossing, facts & figures, plus info on Hull and Beverley.

HUMBER CARS
- is a case
in point of a local authority either not knowing some of their
own history, or else choosing to ignore it. You'd think
Hull City Council would want to make more of this, but there
we are. It's not generally known in Hull, but the founder
of HUMBER CARS actually lived in the town for a time, back in
Queen Victoria's time. Thomas Humber was born in
Sheffield, but when his family moved to Hull for business
reasons, Thomas attended a school in Salthouse Lane near the
present Drypool Bridge for about 5 years. Thomas later started
his cycle manufacturing business and moved to Nottingham,
where he sold the business and site to Raleigh. Then he moved
to Coventry, and that's where the manufacture of Humber
Cars really began. So this link takes you to what should be
held up as one of Hull's gems, the largest working
collection of these superb cars anywhere in the world. So
where is it - ? Yes, it's in Hull, just down Stoneferry.
At least 18 fully working Humbers, from several examples of
the Pullman, down through the Snipe series to the Imperial.
Remember the days of bench seats in real leather, column
change and semaphore arms, doors that opened forward and a
rear cabin that you could walk into and turn round. Visit this
site, then drop by Reg and Alan Marshall's collection, and
spend a memorable couple of hours. If you are getting married,
these are the ONLY cars to be seen climbing out of ! And just
for once, we have something the south does NOT have, for
Londoners have to make do with mere Rollers and Bentleys - but
I assure you, these Humbers are in a class of their own.
That's why, up to the 1950's, they were the favoured
marque of car of the Royal Family. This collection can show
three examples owned by royals, including the Queen Mother and
late King, and his erstwhile brother when he was Prince of
Wales.

OLD CLASSIC CARS
- Driven
by Classics - quoted from their Home Page : "Vintage,
Classic & Antique Cars - Are YOU an enthusiast or owner of
a Classic Car ? If so, I hope you enjoy perusing this web site
aimed at motorcar fans everywhere! The aim of
oldclassiccar.co.uk is to explain in some detail the pros and
cons of running a vintage or classic car on a regular basis.
What do I look for when buying? How do I spot the hidden rot?
Who does drive old cars now and why? Why should I consider a
classic car? When is it best for me to buy or sell a classic
motor?"
Lots of motoring nostalgia here, including the old British road
signs, old maps, etc. Takes you back years and years !

OVERDRIVE AUTO SERVICES
-
folks come from all over to get their car serviced at
Overdrive. I've known Paul, the proprietor, for some 30
years, and it doesn't surprise me considering the
first-class service he gives. Car electronics are so
complicated these days, some with up to a dozen on-board
computers to regulate everything from the engine and brakes to
the air-conditioning and locking systems. And all have to
function together in harmony with each other. That's where
Paul's knowledge as a specialist, with qualifications in
engine diagnostics management, is so valuable. His garage is
just up Dalton Street, in the yard on the left before the
Council Depot, and there's a full map and directions on
the page when you
click this link
.

SPURN POINT:
A cyclic coastal landform
- another fascinating site; it explains how Spurn
was formed, is changing, and may not be there much longer !
See why your grandchildren may not be able to enjoy the Spurn
you knew. There's links to RSPB, nature watching, and the
Humber Coastguard, the RNLI lifeboat station and crews, and
Humber Pilots. Even a list of dates of Humber Lifeboat
callouts, as well as links to other RNLI information. Lovely.
This is the address of the original site that was linked here.
It still works in the WAY BACK MACHINE listed above.
http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/ecolodge/25/spurn.htm

The
"RMS QUEEN MARY"
- never mind the new Queen Mary 2 -
that's just an overblown ferry, no style and all
publicity. Does anyone have any interest in the OLD Cunarder,
former Blue Riband holder and three-funnelled Queen of the
Atlantic in her own right ?
If so, there is an excellent
QM Website
dealing with her time as a troopship. Some very interesting facts and figures
here. Plus a
Discussion Group is available;
new members welcome. It's had 103,000 visitors so far ; See
what is being done to restore the Queen Mary to her former glory,
of how she might be brought back to more closely resemble her
original splendour for business, educational and cultural use in
Long Beach. Considering the ill-conceived conversion, this is a
major challenge.
I'll say! This site will keep you occupied for a few
minutes.

HULL DAILY MAIL
- the
website of this ever-popular regional evening paper. Loads of
links to everything of local interest. Even a daily record of
all 'Family Announcements', births, marriages and
deaths, etc. There's no archive though, so you have to
catch the announcements on the actual day of publication in
the HDM.

STAGECOACH (Hull) CAMERA CLUB
- an excellent Camera & Photographic
club, with this first-rate site. It's site is maintained
by Keith Bilton, who posts up monthly competition entries and
winners. There are often local views of Hull and the East
Riding to be seen here not found elsewhere. A high standard of
photography here, and well worth a visit.

PBase - PHOTOS OF OLD HULL
- another photo archive of old Hull and
environs. They're coming thick and fast now - other photos
in this database are more modern, around East Yorkshire and
York, but sadly, this link is not a direct one. But
experienced Webbers will get in by following this routine;
Click the link above to go to the site, where there are
several photo galleries, then click on a 'Password
Protected' logo, Family2 . It's well down the page,
and enter, or copy & paste this password -
sw1980r
- to access it.
Give it a few seconds, and up will pop something like 240
thumbnails. There have been copyright issues, hence the
convoluted way to access them, but this section of the site is
what can only be described as a superlative postcard
collection. Trust me, it's worth the trouble to access it.
Who recalls the old clock in the round window above the shop
on the corner of Paragon Square? If you knew Hull well, allow
yourself a good half hour.

EYMS vehicle site
- after
the demise of Fotopic, this is the best link to EYMS I can
give. Apart from the interest in the old buses themselves, the
streetscenes in many of these photos are superb. Shops and
businesses long since passed into history, the fashions and
attire of folks in the photos, the destinations on the buses,
even the route numbers - all nostalgia for the right
generation.

KHCT vehicles
- from the
same Flikrhinvemind site and source as the EYMS pages above -
similarly, lots of street scenes, shop fronts, roads and city
centre scenes now altered beyond belief, plus memories of the
old Coach Station of late memory, as it was called in it's
heyday when that EYMS coach depicted above used to leave daily
for Newcastle and Tyneside -

Hull FC
- no introduction
needed for the Official Hull FC site, one of two homes in Hull
for Rugby League. The home of Old Faithful -

Hull City AFC
- the official site for Hull's premier soccer club, the new
stadium, memories of Boothferry Park, et al. Lots of football
information.

HULL FAIR
- pages dedicated to all you wanted to know about Europe's largest
travelling fair.

HULL KINGSTON ROVERS
official site
- aka The Robins - the second of two homes in Hull to
Rugby League, depending on which side of the river you're
on. For those in East Hull, this IS the premier site. All the
same, for political correctness gone mad on THIS site, best
kept apart. And long may the rivalry, friendliness and
good-humoured banter continue.

THE CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
- now have an excellent Website and should
be consulted on all manner of legal questions in the first
instance. Before you lay out expensive charges for a
solicitor, check this site out. You may well get your
questions answered here - or at least pointed in the right
direction.

DISCOVER FINZI
or
MUSIC-WEB INTERNATIONAL - FINZI
- are
links to the English composer, Gerald Finzi, born in 1901. A
much under-rated Englishman, who sadly died at a tragically
early age, just 56 years ago in 1956. If you like Vaughan
Williams, Butterworth, etc, you'll like this man's
music. He knew, was friends with and was inspired by all their
music. One of the midi-music sequences to be found on this
website is Finzi's "Eclogue", all that remained
of a piano concerto. The concerto has been reconstructed from
other pieces he left, and this lovely piece would have been
the slow movement. Or try his "Cello Concerto" for
40 minutes of sheer delight - or his "Dies Natalis"
(Day of Birth), a baby's-eye view of the new world
he's born into, in settings of poems by Thomas Traherne.
Unbelievably lovely! English to the core! He was taken from us
far too early. Another worthy Finzi site,
THE GERALD FINZI TRUST
, was run by
Hyperion Records, and for a long while, this was the only site
with a decent amount of information, record lists, etc. It is
now on the same link as the one above. We
have Hyperion to thank for being a sort of custodian of
Finzi's memory until his recent rise in polularity, for
holding the fort as we might say. If you have recently
'got into classical music', and particularly enjoy the
English music that celebrates our native language and shores,
this is most certainly a country lane to go down. There is so
much of his music available as sound samples to be found on
the web for free that you can try it first before you spend
anything, but I'll guarantee you'll be searching the
record stores for the full pieces before much more time has
passed.

THE INTERNET BANDSMAN'S EVERYTHING WITHIN
- or the
IBEW - is a wonderful bandsman's resource, bands worldwide,
competitions, history of hundreds of brass bands, let alone a
photographic archive to die for. The Internet Bandsman's
Everything Within is as comprehensive a set of brass band links
and related information as it could possibly be. I'm
astounded what's in there - if I can find an old 1930's
photo of a band my grandad was in, in a small Leicestershire
mining village, you can find 'owt ! Brilliant! It's been
around since 1996, when it started out as a website for the
Harrogate band. Now it's all things to all bandsmen!

MORRIS DANCING
- is
enjoying something of a renaissance in England right now, and
rightly so. These are the real roots of our folk and dance
culture. See this site for information on how to learn - or
simply where to watch. Some like to go for the beer - others
enjoy the dancing! This page lists links to many clubs around
Britain and the world.

FUCHSIAS
- very sadly, the previous link to the Swedish Fuchsia Society is no more; that society has unfortunately folded.
So this is another suggestion for those already hooked, and those who think they may be tempted to get hooked. Give it a whirl and see what you think. Tips here particularly for urban gardeners, city folk, and for growing fuchsias in small spaces.

VINE WEEVILS
- if you grow fuchsias, you'll certainly not want vine weevils, described by
some as about the baddest of all the bad bugs you could possibly get in a garden.
Do you have them? Would you recognise one, or it's grub nestled deep down in
the compost? Do you know what you're in for if you advertantly bring some home
in an infected pot? Do you know how to get shut of them? If not, read this
discourse, and learn. I wish I had when I had the chance. Not doing so has
cost me a small fortune. A knowledgeable friend on hand on the night we inadvertantly brought some weevils home in a new potted plant would have saved us a small fortune, as well as a lot of heartache.

World Directory of Towns and Cities
- lists over 2 million places - gives Lat
and Long, height above sea level, with further links to
weather forecasts, and a mass of other information.

OLD MAPS
, dating back to 1846-1950s
- brings up a Counties Gazetteer; select your
county, then select your village or town for more incredible
history. A much bigger range of maps than formerly, most
decades until after WW2. All can be brought up full screen if
you explore it deeply enough. The button for this is almost
hidden, but it's there. A fantastic resource for the
family historian. Some maps are 1:2500 in scale, showing even
tramlines and avenues of trees! Works of art.

Hull Blitz
- maps
plotting the fall of bombs - this links to a new window and a
set of 16 scans of a large streetmap of Hull, dated 1945, onto
which has been entered details of all falls of bombs for the
period 1940-44. Each section loads separately in a new window,
and was roughly A4 in size.

NEW HULL BLITZ MAP
- is a new INTERACTIVE HULL BOMBMAP for 2011
Sadly, for some reason, this no longer works. Runs on MS-Silverlight, which is an Add-On similar to Adobe Flash, but is no longer updated, so browsers won't load it. Shame, because it was very good. So it seems, it's back to the old one above I'm afraid, basic though it is. There's no clue on the site as to who owns or runs it, so I can't even get in touch with them.

Modern aerial views of Hull
- the actual web page is now defunct, but
can still be viewed as it was back in 2007 on the most
excellent WAY BACK MACHINE , a massive web archive on which
most past web pages can be found. Here we have a selection of
about a dozen views from around 2,000 feet. Most of the city
can be seen on the various shots. Also many views of both East
Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, and the general Humberside
area - and I use that name in the geographical context as it
used to be before the name was defiled in the 1974 so-called
reforms. Just as we would still talk about Thameside, or
Severnside - and nothing to do with politics.

MORE MILITARY LINKS

Most WW1 & WW2 Links specific to Hull and the East Riding
are nearer the top of this page,
though there are two repeated below.

Just a suggestion, before you start - have a look at this
list of
"QUESTIONS FOR OLD SOLDIERS".
A Help Sheet specifically provided for young people.
It opens in a separate window, and you can print the questions
leaving space for the answers you may get. If you can get answers
to most of these, you'll be off to a magnificent start, as
well as knowing your grandparent like never before.

MORE HELP SPECIFICALLY FOR YOUNG PERSONS
. . .
in understanding the vast numbers involved in the military during WW1. How many
men were in a battalion, brigade, division, etc ? What was a Corps ?
This link is to a web page of explanation, written by the webmaster of this
site, which hopefully will give you some basic help in understanding how many
men were involved in what types of unit. It may help you to define just where
and how your relative served. I've seen so many folks on the web asking these
very same questions.

All these following links also open in a new browser window, leaving this
Sutton page still open behind. Use ALT + Tab to alternate between them if you
wish, or the Tab facility in Firefox.

HULL VETERANS SUPPORT CENTRE
FORCES VETERANS .. Soldiers Sailors & Airmen .. .. .. of all types, all ages,
a local help and support
organisation. Based on Beverley Rd in Hull, HVSC offer help to any ex-Forces personnel who might require it. A place where ex-Forces can meet and enjoy each other's company and also find many contacts for help and assistance. They rely soley on donations and genererous gifts of cash and goods from companies and private individuals.

WESTERN FRONT ASSOCIATION
- was formed with the aim of furthering interest in the period
1914-1918, to perpetuate the memory, courage and comradeship
of all those who served their countries in France and Flanders
and their own countries during The Great War. It does not seek
to justify or glorify war. It is not a re-enactment society,
nor is it commercially motivated. It is entirely
non-political. The object of The Association is to educate the
public in the history of The Great War with particular
reference to the Western Front. Applications for membership
are welcomed from anyone with a like mind.
(this above was taken from their intro on their Home Page - a
most worthwhile site indeed).

AN OUTLINE TO THE CAUSES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR
AND HOW WE CAME TO HAVE A SECOND.
An amazingly prophetic article written in November 1938 by a naval officer,
explaining how Britain became embroiled in the Great War in the first place,
and why by 1938, a second war was just about unavoidable.

LIVE AND LET LIVE
- Before we leave
links specific to the First War, I must recommend here a
paperback book - a fascinating read and one that perhaps gives
the best insight into the mindset of the ordinary British Tommies
in that long-drawn-out conflict.
"TRENCH WARFARE 1914-1918: The Live and Let
Live System" by Tony Ashworth and published in 1980. (ISBN
0330480685). It explains the root causes of the 1914 Christmas
Truce, and how attitudes to the idea of giving the enemy
'constant attrition' varied from division to division,
even battalion to battalion within the same regiments. It tells
how there really were 'quiet sectors' of the front, and
how unofficial dialogue between British and German soldiers
within earshot of each other helped to keep a sector quiet for a
while, and how the top brass on both sides strove to stamp the
practice out with severe punishments for those caught
collaborating with the enemy.

More than a few of our Tommies did not shoot to kill, they often
deliberately intended to miss, aiming just close enough to make
the enemy keep their heads down. And the Germans did the same to us,
reciprocating the gesture. At times it was almost ritualistic,
they'd fire a shell, we'd fire one back, but not actually
aimed directly at the other, but just for show to keep their
respective officers' happy.

Folks today will not realise that junior officers in charge of sections
of trench had to fill in daily returns of the totals of
ammunition spent, mortar shells, machine gun rounds, individual rifle rounds.
Woe betide the officer who could not show that his men were up with the best
of them in 'constant attrition.' The pressures from above to keep the fight
going was tremendous. It's almost unbelievable now,
but on the odd occasion when a shell, designed to miss, did kill,
they often shouted apologies to each other in order to stop it
escalating into a full firefight. Neither they nor the Germans
saw any point in wanton
killing if no territorial advantage could be immediately gained,
other than
to fulfill their unit requirement of ordnance expended, figures laid down by
'brasshats,' the brigadiers and general above.
Why rile the enemy and take his trenches when you knew there were
no reinforcements to follow it up. It was just asking for
trouble.

And then of course, in other sectors, all hell would let
loose, and for long periods of time. This is not a comment on our
soldiers' bravery; far from it. But most men could only keep
up constant attrition for so long, and after a time, even the
most battle-hardened sickened of it. It became an unofficial way
for soldiers to keep a tiny measure of control over their own
lives in a way they couldn't when involved in the bigger and
more famous battles. At the very least, it enabled tired men to
get a few nights sleep and have their breakfast in relative peace
- for the enemy just a few yards away was doing exactly the
same.

We can only speculate whether a decisive conclusion to
the war one way or the other could have been brought about much
quicker had all the men on BOTH SIDES been equally as keen to
kill ALL THE TIME - or perhaps whether the final casualty list
could have been even worse for no appreciable gain in time or
effect. I certainly sympathise with the men on both sides who
needed a break from the constant killing - and yet also can well
understand Douglas Haig's attitude that such practices would
not win the war and constant attrition was the only answer. You
know, I can't make my mind up.

World War II - Maps on the
Web
- more detailed maps, of World War II, many
theatres of war, Europe, Far East, etc - eg. Places in Britain
within range of German fighters.

Commonwealth War Graves
Commission
- the first place to look if you have
name, service, which war, and knowing a rank will help
enormously with the most common names. Includes the Merchant
Navy.

The Royal British Legion
- the quintessential ex-serviceman's organisation, famous
for organising the annual Festival of Remembrance in the Royal
Albert Hall, as well as the annual Poppy Day collections
nationwide.

MOD Records and Contacts
- for all service records, an overall site linking to records
offices for all three armed services, and also information on
how to apply for copies of medals and decorations awarded,
etc.

World War 1 Medal Rolls
.
Over half of the army's records for men who served in WW1
were destroyed by enemy action when bombs fell on Whitehall in
WW2. Years later, someone cleverly realised that if a man or
woman served abroad in the First War, then they were almost
certainly awarded a campaign medal. And those records survived
the bombing. This is a database of those Medal Rolls, all 5.5
million men and women, including those who died, all on one
site. It came on line in Jan 04, and should now be complete.
To send for an image of one particular record, the cost is
GBP3.50, payable by credit card online. A wonderful resource,
found at the National Archives, ie, Kew Records Centre in
London. Of course, you can also come to us in here in the
Sutton & Wawne Museum,
where we have access to those same archives. Bring a memory stick and take
an image
of your relative's medal card away with you.

The Long, Long Trail
- a
massive site giving many Regimental, Corps and Battalion
locations, specifically for the 1914-1918 War. Invaluable if
you know the unit your forefather was in, but don't know
where he went. Gives some very useful starting clues. For
instance, if you know your man was in the East Yorkshires, and
there was family talk of Salonika and fighting the Turks, then
you have a lead on his being in either the 2nd or 6th
Battalions - both of which served in the disastrous
Dardanelles campaign.

WAAFS
- to the
Women's Auxiliary Air Force Association, the women's
section of the Royal Air Force.

WRACS
- to the
Women's Royal Army Corps Association, includes and
incorporates the ATS, or Auxiliary Transport Services, who
were the women pilots that delivered warplanes direct from the
factories to the squadrons.

AIRCREW REMEMBRANCE
SOCIETY
- speaks for itself, a very worthy site
to be added here. It runs on donations from members of the
public and indeed is reliant upon the public for increasing
their total library of information. It's a non-political
site dedicated to perpetuating the memory of aircrew lost
mainly during the Second World War.
See the very bottom of this page for links to wartime issues of
"FLIGHT - Service Aviation" issued to RAF and FAA personnel.
Very useful for lists of casualties, honours and awards, etc.

THE NOT FORGOTTEN
ASSOCIATION
. . . a Tri-Service Charity,
"which provides entertainment, leisure and recreation for
the serving wounded, injured or sick and for ex-service men
and women with disabilities," to quote directly from
their website. Incredibly, they were founded around the same
time as the Royal British Legion, being founded in 1922.
Today's patron, since 2000, is HRH The Princess Royal, and
the charity is also supported by 'Help for Heroes.'
They help around 12,000 people a year. Naturally, their emblem
is an elephant. Elephants never forget, do they. A good
choice.

AUXILLIARY TERRITORIAL
SERVICE
- a different ATS , those thousands of
unsung women of all ages who did their bit towards the
ultimate victory by doing what had previously been men's
jobs in the forces, jobs that relieved more men of the armed
forces to take the war to the enemy. Women that were drivers,
clerks, cooks and orderlies, gunners and armourers,
searchlight operators, wireless operators and telephonists,
and not forgetting that legion of storewomen feared by rookie
soldiers everywhere. We couldn't have won it without them.
This is a tremendous site, and comes recommended by your
Webmaster.

LAND ARMY & TIMBER
CORPS
- another massive group of unsung women,
even more thousands, that worked the land and set free farmers
and farm labourers free to join the armed forces. Another
major organisation of womenfolk that made such a huge
contribution, we couldn't have won it without them either.
Between the ATS and the Land Army, this nation owes a huge
debt of gratitude, and it's been far too long in the
coming. Another recommended site for Grandmas everywhere.
Grandkids should be saying, 'what did YOU do in the war,
Grandma?". Some of their stories will astonish
you.

National Maritime Museum
- in Greenwich holds records for casualty lists of merchant
shipping losses. This goes to the Collections page, because
the Home Page didn't seem to be working when I tried it,
showing an error (29/01/05).

WRNS
- the Women's
Royal Naval Service Benevolent Trust - the women's section
of the Royal Navy. Now disbanded as a separate service, as
with the WRACS and WAAFS above, the WRNS likewise performed
sterling service supporting the administrative side of the
navy, in bases all over the world. As well as basic office
duties, they were also invaluable in manning war rooms,
signals and transport sections, supporting the work of
fighting ships in every imaginable way.

NAVAL HISTORY NET
... a
truly incredible and valuable resource, and growing. Devised
and provided by Gordon Smith as a tribute to his father,
killed at sea in WW2, and also his grandfather, who served in
both world wars. It lists EVERY naval casualty of the RN and
Dominion Navies - including Royal Marines - who were killed or
died, by enemy action or by accident, whilst in service at
sea, or on a shore station,
including between the
wars.
For instance, it is incredible how many men, and
women, we lost just to road accidents in foreign ports. Also
lists all our warships, where they served, what happened to
them, in fact, just about all you want to know about our Royal
Navy history. It's sobering to see lists of dead, day by
day as we go through the months of war, and see listed the
whole ship's company of sometimes hundreds of men, often
designated as MPK - missing presumed killed - but the exact
fate of that ship is still unknown, just that she was sunk or
bombed and was lost without trace with all hands - very, very
moving.

CONVOY WEB
... the link to Naval History above does also link to this, but this link
takes you directly to this superb site. WW2 naval historians
will be beside themselves with joy here. Every convoy of WW2, all their code
letters, dates and ports of departure and arrival, names of ships within the
convoys, sometimes numbers of troops aboard troopships. When researching, the
site makes one good point to remember, will save a lot of time later to
emphasise it here; troops were frequently embarked aboard their troopships
some days before the actual date of sailing shown in the archives
, typically three or four days. Similarly, on arrival, troops may be another
day or so before actual disembarkation. Generally, a Magnificent Site, and
should be far better known.

ROYAL NAVAL MUSEUM
- at
HM Naval Base, Portsmouth. Lots of info on HMS Victory, HMS
M.33, plus a features on the Dardanelles Campaign of 1915 marking the
centenary, plus much more. Includes links to history and records for Royal
Marines. Also see next entry below.

ROYAL MARINES MUSEUM
- at Eastney Barracks, Southsea. Includes links to RM Commandos,
and how to train to be a Royal Marine Commando. One of
Britain's oldest regiments, though technically have long
been a Corps, it was known as the Admiral's Regiment, and first
formed in 1664. The nation's 'Sea Soldiers', with
detachments on most large warships as well as the commando HQs
ashore, Royal Marines have long been regarded as Britain's
sheet anchor. They undertake everything from small landing and
boarding parties to full-scale invasions, a Commando unit being
roughly the equivalent of an army battalion, around 800 men.
"By Sea, By Land" is their motto, amphibious warfare is their
speciality.
They proudly marked their 350th anniversary in 2014 with some
style, and has a world-famous band service renowned for it's
display of the historic naval ceremonies of Beating Retreat and Sunset.

ROYAL NAVAL PATROL SERVICE
ASSOCIATION
- shown here because so many men from
Hull and the Humber ports volunteered, often as whole crews
together in much the same fashion as the Pals Battalions in
the army of the Great War, that I thought it proper to have a
direct link. There's a picture of the RNPS Memorial at
Lowestoft, as well as their museum and HQ in what was HMS
Europa in Sparrow's Nest Gardens in Lowestoft. The
memorial overlooks both the gardens and the sea. This is for
all those who served in "Harry Tate's Navy" -
brave men, and hitherto their contribution, no less vital than
say the pilots of the Battle of Britain, has so often been
unrecognised. Minesweeping, anti-submarine patrols, air-sea
rescue, and a lot of 'dangerous and dirty' jobs no one
else would willingly undertake, all fell to the men of this
unique if unglamorous outfit. Taking on a submarine in only a
fishing trawler armed with a 12-pdr gun, doing both Atlantic
and Arctic Convoy escort duty, landing Special Forces and
reconnaissance units on enemy shores, were all no mean feats.
There casualty rate was horrendous, on a par to the Merchant
Navy and Bomber Command. And for those that survived, when the
war was over, it was simply back to the fishing and earning a
living in one of the most dangerous occupations on this earth
- or sea. We're proud to honour them here.

DEMS Gunners
- this link is the best first step to find
information on these often overlooked men, by searching on
Wikipedia. DEMS
stood for 'Defensively Armed Merchant Ships', and any
relatives that have come across references to a man being part of
the ship's company of a vessel called HMS
PRESIDENT will want to know about this. For PRESIDENT was simply
an old steam ship
moored in the Thames, and she's still there with her yellow
funnel and can now be hired for functions and parties. But in WW2,
PRESIDENT was the pay HQ of all naval ratings assigned to merchant
ships for gunnery protection against German subs and aircraft.
More than a few of these men lost their lives on some unheard of
merchant ship or tramp steamer, and the only record left is of
their name inscribed on the RN memorial and as having supposedly
served on
HMS PRESIDENT. In the vast majority of cases, they never set foot
aboard her. There was a lot more to their stories than that,
very complicated and all wrapped up in the British
government's desire to be seen to be observing the rule of
war whilst still giving our merchant seamen some protection. The
Americans were far less squeamish, and called their USN gunnery
ratings 'Armed Guards'. Often, they served together on
the same ships with Royal Navy personnel, as we 'loaned'
the Americans some of our
DEMS gunners. So it's worth seeking out Armed Guard websites
too. If you have a relative that was killed at sea, apparently
on an American merchant ship, the chances are he was really a
Royal Naval rating trained as a DEMS gunner on smaller calibre
guns,
like 3" or the famous anti-aircraft Oerlikon, or even
mounted Lewis guns of WW1 vintage. They really were fighting
against all the odds and were very brave men indeed. Many would
go on to find themselves taking on a squadron of Luftwaffe Stukas armed with
nothing more than an ageing WW1 machine gun, and many lost that unequal battle
doing it. Others simply died in their sleep when torpedoed, or drowned in
abandoning ship. For those who have never even heard of DEMS gunners, just
knowing what they were will help.

CONVOYWEB
- I can't recommend or praise this site enough. If you have been researching
anyone who served in the Royal or Merchant Navy and trying to trace ships,
convoys, movements around the globe in those vital years 1939-1945, then this
site is a real find. And free. A good example is when looking for a DEMS
gunner detailed above. If you know the name of the ship, or when your relative
sailed or arrived, or ports he mentioned, you have a good chance of finding out
even more. Even if you have no ship, but have dates or port of departure, you
still have a chance. In many cases, it's more a question of a process by
elimination. When looking for those killed, the CWGC site will name the ship,
and more details may then be on the equally incredible
Naval History
site, and the "Casualty Researches of Don Kindell". All those killed in
action, missing presume killed (mpk), died of wounds (DOW) or just died of
illness whilst part of a ships company, all are listed for the RN and Dominion
navies. Even those killed in road accidents when ashore are listed.

FLEET AIR ARM MUSEUM
- at
RNAS Yeovilton, Somerset, will change your perception of
aircraft Museums. The Museum has the largest collection of
Naval aircraft anywhere in Europe, together with the first
British built Concorde which you can go aboard and visit the
cockpit. Find out more by exploring this Web Site and then see
us for yourself.

HULL & EAST RIDING AT WAR
A local site run by a team of enthusiasts keen to see the part
Hull and the East Riding played in both world wars more widely told. Whether
the role of the Hull Pals battalions in the Great War, or Hull's untold
suffering in the blitz in the second, this is a remarkable site, with a great
wealth of interest to this area. It's particularly strong on other bodies and
authorities as well as the regular military, so police and fire brigades, civil
defence and Home Guard, and many other auxilliary units all have a place here.
There's an extra-special focus on individual stories, as well as pages on each
of the RAF stations across East Yorkshire. It will grow and grow, and well
worth a visit.

KINGSTON UPON HULL WAR MEMORIAL 1914 - 1918
A more complete story of Hull in World War One . . . a totally marvellous and
phenomenal new website dedicated to honouring every single one of all the men
of Hull who lost their lives in the First World War. It really is an amazing
resource, with losses even listed by street name as well as by service,
regiment or ship. An incredible amount of information here, all researched and
put together by Hull WW1 historian Paul Bishop. It will certainly be well used
by folks here at the Sutton & Wawne Museum, and I wholeheartedly recommend it
as a new resource to use alongside the existing ones, such as Hull & East
Riding at War listed above. Thank you Paul.

NEW !! Jan 2018
THE DINSDALE LISTS for HULL 1914 - 1918
Though new to us, this is an ongoing project that has so far taken 20 years. The author, a former serviceman himself, has compiled searchable lists of losses of the East Yorkshire Regiment, divided into those for officers and another database for other ranks. There is also a list of Hull's military losses generally for all forces, and an Absent Voters List which mostly points to Prisoners of War, again of all forces. The site includes information on thousands of men from Hull and the East Riding villages who served and survived. Dozens of images of printed casualty lists are also to be found, under "EAST YORKS MEMORIALS". And all for free, by the way. If you've already been unsuccessful in searching for details of a man, who you know from the CWGC site died in service, or even served, then check these lists out. It's a very easy-to-use site, no adverts or fripparies, whose simple layout belies the massive database that underlies it all. I'm told there are some 60,000 names all told, so not just the 7,000 or so men from Hull that were killed, but as many 'also served' as the author can find ... and it's still ongoing and being added to.
If you know of an omission, you can add to it by emailing the author.

THE YORKSHIRE REGIMENT
. . . the successor to both the East and West Yorkshires, the
Green Howards, and the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. Their website takes you
to their regimental museum pages, with a comprehensive regimental history of
not just both world wars, but many other conflicts too. There are a surprising
number of records you can access online, though some WW2 records pertaining to
men enlisted and discharged are not yet available online. Most WW1 records
are.

THE PRINCE OF WALES'S OWN REGIMENT OF YORKSHIRE
the successor to both the East and West Yorkshires, the Green Howards, and the
Duke of Wellington's Regiment. Their website takes you to their regimental
museum pages, with a comprehensive regimental history of not just both world
wars, but many other conflicts too. There are a surprising number of records
you can access online, though some WW2 records pertaining to men enlisted and
discharged are not yet available online. Most WW1 records are.

MARITIME HISTORY
RESOURCES
- is a wonderful Maritime History
Resource site based in the USA, for Passenger Lists of
emigration ships from the UK and Ireland, and other general
genealogical resources, plus lists of maritime museums
specific to the US. There's a ship search for the US Coast
Guard, and many other interesting links. This is also a
charity web site where Americans were first able to donate
unwanted boats and even yachts; this expanded to include cars,
motorbikes and trailers. These are all collected promptly for
free. Perhaps we'll see such charitable collections here
in the UK before long.

THE SECRET LISTENERS
- a website dedicated to the army of WW2 'secret radio listeners' who used
their own amateur radio sets to firstly listen out for German spies here in
Britain from 1940 onwards, but more importantly who later discovered the wealth
of secret German High Command radio traffic in their 'uncrackable' five-letter
codes. A truly amazing story, one that will especially fascinate anyone with an
interest in radio and its early history.

EDEN CAMP
- If you didn't live through these wars, but want to know
more about the privations and hardships your family had
to bear on the 'Home Front', or experience a little of
the atmosphere of the times, then you should visit this
excellent museum just outside Malton. I use the word
"experience" advisedly - you will not feel the real
fear and cold and pain, but you may come to understand a
little, just a little. You may have had older relatives no
longer with us who told you something of those years, and
they, perhaps, were very descriptive. Perhaps you doubted them,
considered their stories somewhat exaggerated.
Come to Eden Camp, and I think you'll
find they didn't exaggarate one bit, more likely they couldn't or wouldn't tell you the half of it.
It would be hard to exaggerate what our enemies did to us,
and even more of what they did in continental Europe to other
nations, or the exploits of the Japanese out in the Far East to the Chinese, Malays, the Philipines or Burmese. But Eden's story is primarily of the war here in Europe.
Thankfully, our parents never knew the horrors of whole villages of women and children being rounded up and locked in a church, to which our very considerate enemy then set fire, as reprisals for what some of the menfolk had done. Let's not beat about the bush, yes, Germans did that several times, in France, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Italy, though admittedly, it wasn't always in a church.
I suspect some reading this will not believe that. But I daresay they'll get round to checking it out on
"WW2 Atrocities", even if just out of curiosity.
In our home experience, just for a woman to have
to contend with the rationing, the scarcity of new clothes and
fashions, the worry of having your children sent miles away 'to
safety', let alone whether your man, your dad, or brother,
was coming home, is enough thought for us that came afterwards
to realise that these wonderful displays in the old
prisoner-of-war huts do not begin to help us fully
understand what they went through. But it's a start. And
then, atop of all that, there was the bombing.

Remember this if you go - as you pay your money to go in,
you know you will be coming out. Also, you have the benefit of 70
years of history that tells us that, not only did Britain and the
free world win, but that we were right to do what we did. Your
forebears neither knew for certain we were going to win, until
roughly 1943-44, and for much of the war, most didn't really
know what was going on elsewhere. To put it simply, folks in
Coventry and London, suffering as they did, had no idea that Hull
was having it just as bad - because no-one told them, except by
heresay, and that was just rumour when all said and done. Men
falling on the field of battle at El Alamein were not to know
that their sacrifice was to be a turning point, that history would deem
their actions, even in death, helped to turn a perilous corner.
Few held the full story. We know all this now. And when the full
story came to be told, few realised just how much of a close call
we'd all had - we very nearly didn't win. Taken by sheer weight of armour, aircraft, numbers of men and their total war machine, Germany should have won that war. And they know it.
What is even more chilling, is that the descendants of the German war machine of those years know it too. Why they didn't is another fascinating story. But, as the victor
of Waterloo famously said, "it was a damned close run thing." And that's some understatement. Eden Camp tells a good deal of that story.

For those of you that did experience all this, and
served, and though frightened to death, still went back off leave
for another dose of what you knew was coming, still went out at
night firewatching, still went to work daily not knowing if your
work was still there, still ushered your family and children down
the shelters almost nightly, I salute you - ! And so should
everyone else. Most of us will never know, let alone repay, the
debt that we owe you.

PDSA - THE DICKEN MEDAL
Finally, a link to a rare honour for animals. Many will have heard
of the Dicken Medal, but I suspect many will have not. There are many unknown
stories on here of animals that were honoured for their bravery and standing
steadfast in the face of great danger. As their website says, the PDSA Dickin
Medal is the highest award any animal can receive whilst serving in military
conflict. There have been quite a few surprising recipients.

TO SUM UP . . .

. . . and a few more tips to searching

All these above sites will contain many, many links to
lead you further on into your research. Also remember that there
are hundreds if not thousands of websites posted by individuals,
service veterans, their families, that document particular
regiments, squadrons, or ships. Since I first wrote this, there
has been a massive increase in the number of blogs, forums, and private
memories online. It really is incredible just what can be found. Use
GOOGLE
and enter basic details : for
instance, enter SQUADRON 160 RAF CEYLON - and see what pops
up. You'll find some instances of where ex-aircrew have
posted up actual reports of Air Accident Investigations for
losses of individual aircraft. There's information now on
the web for all to see that was not given or available to the
relatives of lost servicemen at the time of their
deaths.

Similarly, search for ships by name, especially the more
famous ones - type "HMS HOOD" and use the inverted
commas to force a search for the whole name. Many names are
thoroughly ambiguous, such as the county class cruisers like the
SUFFOLK and DORSETSHIRE - you need to box a bit clever with
these, and add the name of the theatre of war, or action, or
enemy ship they were engaged with. Type SUFFOLK BISMARCK and see
what pops up. There are 57,000 references, the vast majority
pointing to the ships themselves, though some will coincidentally
be referring to the county of Suffolk and some gentry that was
related to Count von Bismarck himself. Also with ships, after
loading the links, another worthwhile search is for an IMAGE
SEARCH. I did it and the first four pictures are of the Royal
Navy cruiser SUFFOLK herself, and the fifth was pic of her
Swordfish aircraft taken from the film, SINK THE BISMARCK,
starring Kenneth More. The ways of searching are
endless.

Type 4TH BTN NORTHANTS - and dozens of links pop up that contain
references to that particular unit in that county regiment, some
of which will link to the regimental museum itself. If you have
the name of a particular action or battle, type it in - eg SOMME
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, and also use NORTHANTS, as when a battalion is
referred to, the colloquial terminology is often used to shorten
the county name - for instance, a man would have said he was in -
"the 4th Northants, the 1st Leicesters, or the 8th Warwicks."

The amount of information already out there is nothing short of
incredible, and this is early days in the history of the web.
It's only really been growing apace for this past 20 years.
Don't be put off by quantity, you'll soon learn to fly
through the flotsam and jetsam of the internet and spot the
information you're looking for.

Ever heard of Jan Baalsrud ? Those few of you who have
read the 1955 book "We Die Alone" will know who I mean.
He was a Norwegian Resistance Fighter during WW II. He had one of
the most amazing experiences and escapes ever told, and his sheer
strength and endurance is an epic tale in itself, let alone naked
courage. What would you make of a man who amputated his own toes?
Well, 9 - all bar one of them. If you want to know more, go to
the
Google.com
search engine, and type in
"Jan Baalsrud", just like that, in inverted commas.
Up will pop plenty of links. What a story - get the book; it
was re-published in the early 1990's. I spent several
years not quite believing it, and only found it was true on
the Internet, when I saw a photo of Jan with King Haakon.
There's more to this story than I'm telling - I'm
not giving the end away - see for yourself. The best read
you'll ever have. A real hero, in anyone's book! Young
ladies should note that REAL men used to be built like this
years ago.

Well, that's almost enough to be going on with.
There's enough here to keep most of you up for an hour or two.

Clicking the "More Detailed Weather" line at
the bottom of the box below
will open a full report, with a map, in a new window.

You must have a browser that supports
iframes to view the BBC weather
forecast.

FLIGHT - Service Aviation
is an amazing archive of most wartime issues of this magazine, issued to
RAF and Fleet Air Arm personnel throughout the war.
Apart from the general historical interest re aircraft, what is most
useful to family historians is the huge amount of info and data given,
each six months, on casualties, promotions, decorations and awards.
Yes, even down to Mentioned in Despatches, so notoriously hard to find.
There were two issues a year, in January, and July, and they are huge files,
and take some time to open in Adobe Acrobat. Tip: use another PDF reader
if you plan to do word searches, say for a name. Adobe doesn't help you there.